The dynamic performance of the steel–Basalt fiber polymer concrete (BFPC) machine tool joint surface (referred to as the joint surface) has a significant impact on the overall BFPC machine tool performance; however, its dynamic characteristics remain unclear. In order to solve this problem, the influence of roughness and surface pressure on the dynamic performance of joint surface was studied experimentally, and a neural network prediction model for the dynamic performance of the joint surface was established. A BFPC bed was designed and manufactured, and BFPC bed’s dynamic performance was tested experimentally. The finite element simulation model of BFPC bed was established with equivalent spring-damper element. The BFPC bed’s dynamic performance without considering the influence of the joint surface and considering the influence of the joint surface was studied separately. The results show that the maximum error of the natural frequency of the BFPC bed was 6.937% considering the influence of the joint surface, which was much lower than the error without considering the influence of the joint surface. The maximum amplitude error of the X-axis and Z-axis acceleration of the BFPC bed was 6.917% and 5.15%, which were much smaller than the error without considering the influence of the joint surface. It proves the accuracy of the neural network prediction model for dynamic performance of the joint surface and the validity of the finite element simulation method for the joint surface. It provides theoretical support for the design analysis of BFPC machine tool.

The corrosion resistance of resistance spot-welded (RSW) Al–steel couples of varying combinations of 6016-T4 aluminum alloys and steel substrates, including with and without adhesive at the faying interface, has been successfully evaluated and compared with corresponding self-pierce riveted (SPR) couples. The corrosion resistance of resistance spot-welded Al–steel couples has performed well in cyclic corrosion testing (GMW 17026), and the results are comparable to or better than that of self-pierce riveted couples. SPR couples are more susceptible to galvanic corrosion than resistance spot-welded couples based upon experimentally measured electrochemical potentials from actual joints. The presence of adhesive acts significantly to reduce galvanic corrosion between aluminum alloy and stleel substrates, and moreover, tensile lap-shear strength significantly increased with structural adhesive for both RSW and SPR joining systems. However, despite the presence of adhesive, the lap-shear strength was reduced by more than 50% after cyclic corrosion testing to strength levels comparable to the lap-shear strength of couples having no adhesive and tested in ambient conditions.

Projection welding of steel weld nuts to advanced high strength steel (AHSS) in automotive applications allows for the reliable mounting of critical components with different thicknesses to the vehicle body. However, the galvanized coatings commonly used on AHSS result in electrode surface degradation during welding. In this study, the electrode degradation and its effect on the mechanical properties of welded steel nuts and AHSS sheets are investigated. Two common electrode materials are tungsten/copper and beryllium-free class III copper—both display the formation of an oxidized alloy surface layer and pitting as weld number increases. Unlike resistance spot welding, where electrodes grow in the contact area diameter as they degrade, projection welding electrodes do not experience this type of mechanical degradation. Instead, increased resistance at the electrode interface with increasing weld number results in higher temperatures at the weld interface and a larger fusion zone size, which is responsible for an observed 30% increase in weld strength over the span of 10,000 welds.

Self-piercing riveting has been widely used in vehicle body manufacturing to join aluminum alloys or aluminum to steel. However, it is difficult to rivet ultrahigh strength steel (UHSS) because of its resistance to piercing of the rivet. In this paper, a thermally assisted self-piercing riveting (TA-SPR) process was proposed to improve riveting of the UHSS, through locally preheating the UHSS sheet using an induction coil prior to the traditional self-piercing riveting (SPR) process. An experimental system consisting of inductive heating apparatus, conventional self-piercing riveting equipment, and coupon transfer mechanism was established and the steps, e.g., preheating, coupons transfer, and riveting, were automatically conducted at preset schedules. Based on experiments with this system, the effects of heating current, heating time, and coil heating distance on riveting of AA6061-T6 and DP980 were examined systematically by metallurgical analyses and mechanical tests. It was found that an appropriate combination of heating current and heating time, e.g., 0.5 s at 600 A, could produce crack-free joints having 77.8% higher undercut and 24% higher lap-shear strength, compared with results obtained using a conventional SPR process.

Advanced high strength steels (AHSS) and ultra-high strength steels (UHSS) have been increasingly implemented by the automotive industry for better crashworthiness and fuel economy. However, these steels are often sensitive to the trimmed edge cracking. The objective of the present paper is to study the sheared edge of ultra-high strength dual-phase steel, DP980, in mechanical trimming and hole punching by sheared edge quality assessment, stretchability, and hole expansion tests as well as finite element analysis. Furthermore, the mechanism of fracture propagation in trimming and hole punching processes of DP980 was discussed. Rather a unique fracture mechanism was observed for trimming of DP980 steel leading to the burr removal at the final stage of the trimming process. Finite element analysis revealed that, under very large clearances, a secondary crack initiates from the edge of the lower tool, and the primary propagated crack turns toward it simultaneously. Intersecting of these two cracks leads to the total separation and leaves the edge of the trimmed part with a broken burr. Fracture observation of trimmed specimens revealed that crack initiation sites under tension moved from the middle of the trimmed surface toward the burr tip with increasing the clearance. This study demonstrates the importance of stretchability tests for designing the stamping dies as well as a reliable finite element simulation for characterizing the material behavior during the shearing process.

This study investigates the prediction of maraging steel C250 microgrinding forces by incorporating phase transformation effects with the manufacturing process mechanics. The results could consequently increase the accuracy of the prediction and better understand the influence of phase evolution on the materials processing. Based on a detailed analysis of microgrinding mechanics and thermodynamics, an iterative blending scheme integrating phase transformation kinetics and material genome analysis is developed. The physical-based formulation, experimental validation, and computational configuration are presented herein for the microgrinding forces, quantifying phase transformation effects. According to the results, the implementation of the iterative blending scheme can help achieve a higher prediction accuracy of microgrinding forces. Besides, the iterative blending would enable the consideration of the interactive relation between process mechanics and microstructure evolution through materials genome analysis.

The white layer formed in machining has significant impacts on the friction property, fatigue resistance, and service life of products. This paper presents an analytical model for white layer prediction in orthogonal cutting based on phase transformation mechanism. The effects of stress, elastic, and plastic strain on phase transformation temperature are taken into consideration. A function related to cutting temperature and phase transformation temperature is defined to determine the white layer thickness. The theoretical model is validated by machining AerMet100 steel under different cutting conditions. Optical microscope and X-ray diffraction (XRD) are employed to analyze the microstructures of the white layer. A phase transformation is detected in the white layer region, and the predicted white layer thicknesses are in good agreement with the measured values. In addition, the plastic strain is found to be the major factor that causes a reduction in phase transformation temperature. This work can be further applied to optimize cutting conditions to improve machined surface integrity.

This paper deals with the detailed analysis of the lateral process forces in rolling-cut shearing of heavy steel plates and their impact on edge defects. Rolling-cut shearing is still the most common method of heavy-plate side trimming. However, this method can entail edge defects like uneven longitudinal shape as well as burr and fractures in the area of the cut-changeover (beginning and end of the periodical cuts). In the existing literature, neither the root cause of these edge defects nor their nexus with the upper blade trajectory (blade drive-kinematics) has been analyzed in detail. In this work, these issues will be explored based on the finite element method (FEM) simulations and measurements from an industrial plant. The complex interrelation between drive-kinematics, varying lateral force, unintended lateral motion of the upper blade, unintended variation of the blade clearance, and quality defects is analyzed. The variation of the lateral force is identified as the root cause of such quality defects and a physical explanation for variations of the lateral force is given. The detailed understanding of the shearing process serves as a solid basis for an optimization and re-design of the drive-kinematics in a future work. Measurements from an industrial plant and simulation results show good agreement and thus confirm the theory. The results are transferable to other rolling-cut trimming shears.

An accurate analytical method is normally the preferred choice in engineering practice since this approach usually does not require additional software and can be applied for different situations. A number of analytical methods have been proposed for the air bending process, however, none of them has the capacity to deal with large radius bending. Large radius bending is characterized by a high ratio of the punch radius to the die opening and it is often applied for high-strength steels because of their limited bendability. This bending mode is used to fulfill the imposed level of maximum strain during the forming process. This contribution develops an analytical solution based on the assumption that the bent plate profile can be represented by two straight lines and a circular segment. Three different hardening laws—linear, Swift, and Aerens—are used for the bending moment calculation. Unit moment measurements are used in order to avoid extrapolation of hardening curves obtained by tensile testing. The model is compared with a wide range of experiments using the coefficient of determination, relative and absolute average errors, in addition to the mean standard error. The analytical prediction based on the circular approximation is found to be an accurate and robust tool for the calculation of the major bending characteristics for large radius air bending of high-strength steels.

Impact welding is a material processing technology that enables metallurgical bonding in the solid state using a high-speed oblique collision. In this study, the effects of thickness of the flier and collision angle on weld interface morphology were investigated through the vaporizing foil actuator welding (VFAW) of AA1100-O to AISI 1018 Steel. The weld interfaces at various controlled conditions show wavelength increasing with the flier thickness and collision angle. The AA1100-O flier sheets ranged in thickness from 0.127 to 1.016 mm. The velocity of the fliers was directly measured by in situ photon Doppler velocimetry (PDV) and kept nearly constant at 670 m/s. The collision angles were controlled by a customized steel target with a set of various collision angles ranging from 8 deg to 28 deg. A numerical solid mechanics model was optimized for mesh sizes and provided to confirm the wavelength variation. Temperature estimates from the model were also performed to predict local melting and its complex spatial distribution near the weld interface and to compare that prediction to experiments.

In this study, the friction stir welding (FSW) of aluminum alloy 6061-T6511 to TRIP 780 steel is analyzed under various process conditions. Two FSW tools with different sizes are used. To understand the underlying joining mechanisms and material flow behavior, nano-computed tomography (nano-CT) is applied for a 3D visualization of material distribution in the weld. With insufficient heat input, steel fragments are generally scattered in the weld zone in large pieces. This is observed in a combined condition of big tool, small tool offset, and low rotating speed or a small tool with low rotating speed. Higher heat input improves the material flowability and generates a continuous strip of steel. The remaining steel fragments are much finer. When the volume fraction of steel involved in the stirring nugget is small, this steel strip can be in a flat shape near the bottom, which generally corresponds to a better joint quality and the joint would fracture in the base aluminum side. Otherwise, a hook structure is formed and reduces the joint strength. The joint would fail with a combined brittle behavior on the steel hook and a ductile behavior in the surrounding aluminum matrix.

A hybrid friction stir resistance spot welding (RSW) process is applied for joining aluminum alloy 6061 to TRIP 780 steel. Compared with conventional RSW, the applied current density is lower and the welding process remains in the solid state. Compared with conventional friction stir spot welding (FSSW) process, the welding force is reduced and the dissimilar material joint strength is increased. The electrical current is applied in both a pulsed and direct form. With the equal amount of energy input, the approximately same force reduction indicates that the electro-plastic material softening effect is insignificant during FSSW process. The welding force is reduced mainly due to the resistance heating induced thermal softening of materials. With the application of electrical current, a wider aluminum flow pattern is observed in the thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) of weld cross sections and a more uniform hook is formed at the Fe/Al interface. This implies that the aluminum material flow is enhanced. Moreover, the Al composition in the Al–Fe interfacial layer is higher, which means the atomic diffusion is accelerated.

Friction stir scribe (FSS) welding as a recent derivative of friction stir welding (FSW) has been successfully used to fabricate a linear joint between automotive Al and steel sheets. It has been established that FSS welding generates a hook-like structure at the bimaterial interface. Beyond the hook-like structure, there is a lack of fundamental understanding on the bond formation mechanism during this newly developed FSS welding process. In this paper, the microstructures and phases at the joint interface of FSS welded Al to ultra-high-strength steel were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that both mechanical interlocking and interfacial bonding occurred simultaneously during the FSS welding process. Based on SEM observations, a higher diffusion driving force in the advancing side was found compared to the retreating side and the scribe swept zone, and thermally activated diffusion was the primary driving force for the interfacial bond formation in the scribe swept region. The TEM energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) revealed that a thin intermetallic compound (IMC) layer was formed through the interface, where the thickness of this layer gradually decreased from the advancing side to the retreating side owing to different material plastic deformation and heat generations. In addition, the diffraction pattern (or one-dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT) pattern) revealed that the IMC layer was composed of Fe 2 Al 5 or Fe 4 Al 13 with a Fe/Al solid solution depending on the weld regions.

In this paper, an inverse method is presented to evaluate the inner workpiece temperature distribution during cryogenic turning of metastable austenitic steel AISI 347 utilizing a FE representation of the process. Temperature data during the experiments are provided by thermocouples and a commercial thermography system. A constant cutting speed at two varying feeds is investigated. Inverse parameter verification by aligning simulated and experimental data in a least squares sense is achieved. A heat flux from tool to workpiece as well as heat transfer coefficients for forced convection by air and by carbon dioxide as cryogenic coolant are identified for each set of cutting parameters. Rigid body rotation in the model is considered applying convective time derivatives of the temperature field. Unphysical oscillations occurring in regions of high Péclet numbers are suppressed utilizing a streamline-upwind/Petrov–Galerkin scheme.

When postforming machining operations are required on high-strength structural components, tool life becomes a costly issue, often requiring external softening via techniques such as laser assistance for press-hardened steel components. Electrically assisted manufacturing (EAM) uses electricity during material removal processes to reduce cutting loads through thermal softening. This paper evaluates the effect of electric current on a drilling process, termed electroplastic drilling, through the metrics of axial force, and workpiece temperature when machining mild low carbon steel (1008CR steel) and an advanced high strength press hardened steel. A design of experiment (DoE) is conducted on 1008CR steel to determine primary process parameter effects; it is found that electricity can reduce cutting loads at the cost of an increased workpiece temperature. The knowledge generated from the DoE is applied to the advanced high strength steel to evaluate cutting force reduction, process time savings, and tool life improvement at elevated feedrates. It is found that force can be reduced by 50% in high feedrates without observing catastrophic tool failure for up to ten cuts, while tool failure occurs in only a single cut for the no-current condition. Finally, the limitations of the developed model in electroplastic drilling are discussed along with future suggestions for industrialization of the method.

This paper describes some fundamental principles, specific features, and the technological capabilities of a new method of quenching steel surface by turning without separation of chips. The underlying process of this method is a deformational cutting (DC), which is based on the undercutting and deformation of surface layers that remain attached to the workpiece. The energy released in the area of DC is used to heat the undercut layer up to the temperatures of structural and phase transformation of workpiece material. This type of process results into a hardened structure formed at the surface which consists of inclined thin undercut layers tightly packed and stuck together and form a single solid body. The resulting hardened structures achieved in steels workpieces are presented in the paper. The samples hardened by DC showed a higher wear resistance compared to samples with traditional quenching. This paper also describes an estimation of the thermo-physical parameters of the DC process.

Steel SUS420J1, which is the key material of turbine blade, is generally treated by heat to improve the strength prior to use. And the austenization process at different heating rates would determine the depth and width of heat treatment. In this paper, the austenization temperatures in heat treatment with the heat from induction wire, infrared lamp, and laser are measured, respectively. The effect of heating rate on the austenization temperature has been investigated. The research results show that the measured austenization temperature increases with the heating rate. And this trend is specially enlarged in the heat treatment method with larger gradient of temperature distribution, e.g., laser. The calculated phase transformation threshold shows that negative linear relationship exists between the logarithmic heating rate and the logarithmic austenization threshold for both induction heating and infrared heating, while abnormal relationship exists for laser heating. Thermal finite element analysis (FEA) models are then developed to calculate the temperature distributions in these three heating methods, and the calculated results show that the nonuniform temperature distribution leads to the gap between the measured austenization temperature and that of the material, which also leads to the abnormal variation law of austenization threshold in laser heating. The measured austenization temperature in induction heating method is thought to be the closest to the actual austenization temperature of the material among these three methods. This paper provides a guide for choosing the proper parameters to heat the steel SUS420J1 in hardening.

Development of monitoring devices becomes crucially important in selective laser melting (SLM) due to the high process complexity and the high value of the products obtained. This work discusses the design of a coaxial monitoring system for SLM using multiple sensors. In particular, an optical model is developed for the propagation of the process emission from the workpiece to the monitoring module. The model is used to determine the field of view (FOV) around the monitored zone. The lens arrangements and the optical filters are chosen according to the model results. They were implemented to construct a monitoring module consisting of two cameras viewing visible and near-infrared wavelength bands, as well as a photodiode viewing the back-reflected laser emission, all integrated in a coaxial configuration. The system functionality is tested with a prototype SLM machine during the processing of 18Ni300 maraging steel, a material known to be prone to porosity. In particular, different remelting strategies were employed as possible correction strategies to reduce porosity. The signals were interpreted as being indicators of the change in absorptivity of the laser light by the powder bed, of the plasma and molten pool, as well as of the evolution of the temperature field.

The stamping of fiber metal laminates (FMLs) at thermoforming temperature of the thermoplastic matrix is investigated. The studied FML types consist of a unidirectional carbon fiber-reinforced core that is attached to metal cover layers either made of a steel or magnesium alloy. An analytical model is established in order to predict the process forces during forming, which are the blankholder force required to make the metal covers yield plastically, the punch force, and the corresponding load distribution on the individual layers (outer layer, core layer, and inner layer). The global forces are primarily verified through experimental force measurements, while numerical simulations are mainly performed to assess the resulting load distribution with the help of strain distributions in the cover layers. The results show that the introduced model can be applied successfully if the stamp-forming process is dominated by friction-induced tensional loading rather than by bending.

Tailor welded blank (TWB) has many advantages over a traditional blank for manufacturing automobile sheet metal components, such as significant flexibility in product design, higher structural stiffness, and crash behavior. However, lower formability and weld line movement are some of the problems associated with forming of TWBs. Hydroforming is a potential technique to enhance formability. In this work, the effect of thickness ratio on maximum dome height and weld line movement in hydraulic bulging of laser welded interstitial-free (IF) steel blanks of different thickness combinations has been predicted using finite element (FE) simulations. The results are also validated with hydraulic bulging experiments on TWBs. It has been found that with increase in thickness ratio, the maximum bulge height decreased and weld line displacement toward thicker side increased. These results have been used to relocate the weld line toward the thinner side in the initial blanks and achieve a more uniform bulge profile of the dome. The peak pressure to achieve maximum safe dome height and percentage thinning has also been found out. The results showed huge improvement in uniformity of bulge profile with little reduction in dome height.